Pre-impact

 

The local county had been celebrating +0 for a couple of weeks since the start of recent outbreak. A few possible clusters was noted but however did not expand into an uncontrollable state.

The outbreak started in late April where a few pilots from the local airlines were tested positive. The incident was preceded by a relaxation of quarantine rule for airline pilot by the local health authority. The initial rule was 5+9 where a pilot had to be quarantine for 5 days followed by 9 days of self monitoring period. Later the restriction was adjusted to 3+11 by mid of April.

The discovery of positive cases among pilot was later follow by case from the community. Cases by cases were noted among the resident of WH area(old town of T-city). Suddenly it had become out of control with hundred of cases were reported in a single day. Major hospital’s ICU was packed with patient, negative pressure rooms were filled up quickly and patients were referred a few hundred km down south for critical care.

Most of the virus strains noted was of the alpha strain, originated from the pilot cluster. The medium of transmission was believed to be the N- hotel which manned by the government own C- airline. The hotel had mixed its patron with the quarantined pilot at the same floor. More and more cases were noted despite contact tracing and isolation effort. An active lion club leader had spread the disease to its member after attending a few gathering. The spreader was known as the ‘Lion Ling’. A grape dealer had also formed a cluster transmitting to his relative and friends. The final hit was noted after cases emerging from Tea lounge with female GRO(guest relation officer) at the WH area.

The whole island had fallen since then. Cases with foot step tracing back to the WH area was noted. Luckily the southern part of the island had managed to stop the chain of transmission by proper contact tracing and isolation. Within 4 weeks, the southern part had managed to achieve zero case while the north was continually haunted by cases of ? origin.

We had stood at our principle of no travel, no contact history is considered safe rule.

We had wanted to purchase PCR machine however no stock was available and we had to send our sample out for testing initially. The whole process was tedious. Patient was admitted to isolation ward pending negative test result. The ED was considered as hot zone in many hospitals however we had treated our ED as grey area; not contaminated nor clean. Some of our staff had started to loosen their grip and various restricted wrong doing (swab test in the ED without proper precaution) was noted.

PCR machine had arrived later and rapid test kit was approved for after the initial hazardous weeks we been through. The arsenal was built up slowly and the line of defense had been stronger ever after.

Level 3 alert state around the island had been a suffering stage for everyone. Dine in was not allow, food joint had turned their focus to take away. Meal box was selling like hot cake from some top notch restaurant. The only place allow to eat is your own premise. Face mask was required everywhere except your house. All entertainment joint had been shut down.

The local people had confined themselves in the house and the southern part had been noted with zero case weeks after the outbreak. We were looking forward to the relaxation of critical state at the end of June but the falling boulder hit us one by one until we were knocked out…